Shiv Sena hits out at BJP; says beginning of Modi's era doesn't mean end of Advani's

"Advani's name should've featured in the first list. A person who was part of BJP's golden era was kept hanging till last minute," Shiv Sena slammed.

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at BJP in its editorial mouthpiece 'Saamna', Shiv Sena on Saturday questioned the party for keeping LK Advani waiting on his seat for Lok Sabha polls. "LK Advani was kept on hold for a long time. Why was he kept on hold? This is an insult to Advani," Shiv Sena said.

"Advani's name should've featured in the first list. A person who was part of BJP's golden era was kept hanging till last minute," Shiv Sena slammed. Shiv Sena added, "This incident may seem small, but repercussions could be great."

Shiv Sena went on to say, "Modi's era has begun in BJP, but that does not mean it is the end of the Advani era." "If Modi, Ranjath Singh & Jaitley can choose constituencies to fight polls from, why cant Advani?" asked Shiv Sena.

The BJP veteran's political character is without any blot, the editorial said.

"Murli Manohar Joshi was asked to contest from Kanpur so that Modi could contest from Varanasi. Rajnath chose safe seat Lucknow instead of Ghaziabad. Jaitley was fielded from Amritsar by removing Navjot Sidhu from fray. Then why was there so much delay in Advani's case," party president Uddhav Thackeray said.

"The relation that the veteran leader has with the masses is still intact. The Advani episode may seem trivial in comparison with the current political tribulations but one must keep in mind that big accidents can occur through such small incidents," the Sena leader said.

"There is no point coming to one's senses after the time has passed," he said.

On Friday, the Shiv Sena gave a taste of things to come to its ally BJP, in case the Narendra Modi-led party decided to dump its partner in Maharashtra.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena on Friday declared that it will field 20 candidates in Uttar Pradesh, as well as field candidates in Delhi, Bihar and Kerala. The party was initially toying with the idea of fielding candidates against BJP President Rajnath Singh in Lucknow and BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi.

However, it dropped the plan after a worried BJP leadership took up the issue with Sena.

While Sena President Thackeray's son Aditya tweeted that the party would not field a candidate against Modi, he was mum on whether the party would field candidates in Uttar Pradesh. While the move might have taken the BJP by surprise, Sena leaders said that "it was in response to what the BJP had in store for Sena in Maharashtra".